Simple Pleasures

Just to warn you, there are no fancy pictures or super exciting stories in this post. Nope, just a few simple pleasures we have begun to take full advantage of this past week in London.

My biggest "simple pleasure" discovery has been walking to Starbucks while Jordan is at school, getting a caramel macchiato (since they don't have my favorite drink, the cinnamon dulce latte), and reading. Yep, you heard me: reading at Starbucks. Okay fine, every so often there is some type of pastry involved. :) It sounds silly, but I never have the time (or take the time) to do this at home, and I have loved every minute of not having other obligations to think about other than my coffee and my book. The best part is, somehow, miraculously, Jordan actually is enjoying this as well when he joins me! Maybe the fact that we had to unplug our T.V. after realizing that we were watching it "illegally" has something to do with it... Seriously though, we have been book-shopping lately, and it's been a great change from plopping down in front of the T.V. at night.

Our next newfound love has been seeking out hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and we've found some great ones this week. There are so many different types of food here that are actually authentic. So rather than getting Chinese food from a place like P.F. Chang's, you are getting the real deal and being served by the cutest Chinese people who hardly speak any English (Don't get me wrong, I love P.F. Chang's, it's just a whole different experience.) And not to mention, most of these places we've found have literally been a hole in the wall, and small holes at that! :) It's definitely a different dining experience to eat at a restaurant with 5 tables than it is to eat at one with 50.

We seemed to have started a Friday morning tradition of sleeping in (since Jordan doesn't have class on Fridays), and Jordan making pancakes with bananas and Nutella. He knows the way right to my heart! 

He looks like a pro, huh?! It's actually pretty funny to see him cooking in our TINY little kitchen, but the end result is AWESOME. 

Sorry, I just had to do the close-up shot. :) Could it get any better than this?! The answer is "no." 

So next time you go to the grocery store, track down some Nutella, bananas, and pancake mix and enjoy this simple pleasure... I promise it's worth it! Jordan's mom, Brenda, actually makes the most amazing Swedish pancakes for Christmas, and I told him that I am going to introduce the family to Nutella next year as an addition. :)

On another note, we found out in the middle of this week that the Manchester United soccer game that we had tickets to actually got moved up to Saturday (it was supposed to be on Monday.) We did some scrambling, and managed to change our train tickets and our hotel reservation... so we are headed to Manchester TOMORROW!!! We are both so excited, Jordan's actually worried he won't be able to sleep tonight. :) I promise our next post will have plenty of details and pictures, and maybe even a video of the big game! We get back Sunday evening, in plenty of time to watch the Super Bowl; which, by the way, starts at 11:30pm here with the time difference. It's going to be a sports-filled weekend, and our first trip out of London!